Join the Conversation About the Future of News
The Talk is all About Journalism – Where It's Headed – at Many Blogs
Jul 22, 2009
The newspaper crisis and the future of news are new topics whenever the conversation turns serious around kitchen tables, or at a favorite restaurant or pub, this year. There are always certain topics that are sure to be discussed, such as the economy, international conflicts, and healthcare but now what to do about diminishing newspapers has been added to that list.
Although most everyone has an opinion about the news media - opinions that have always been widely-shared and discussed - the talk this year has an urgency and concern about it, not seen before. The media landscape is changing swiftly and dramatically. For example:
- Large news companies are filing for bankruptcy protection (The Tribune Company, for example)
- Some are canceling home delivery a few days a week (Detroit Free Press and Detroit News)
- Others have transitioned to an all-digital product (The Christian Science Monitor)
- And some have closed down (The Rocky Mountain News).
- Some cities will soon have no daily newspaper (Ann Arbor, MI will be the first)
As people discuss these changes, there is a fair amount of confusion about what this means for the future of news in general and newspaper companies in particular. There is an uncertainty about how this will affect democratic society. Questons, like the following, are being asked:
- If newspapers fail, what happens to the millions who do not yet have daily access to the web?
- Are young people, who never read a newspaper, adopting a newsreading habit on the web?
- If newspaper companies go out of existence, who and what will replace the industry's 45,000 newsroom employees (in the U S) who do the bulk of original and investigative reporting?
- Can voluntary citizen journalism efforts really fill the gap that is left?
On the web, debate about journalism, and how its future may evolve, is taking place in a particularly sustained and detailed manner. Bloggers, journalists, educators and new media consultants are intensely engaged in this conversation, and anyone can listen in.
Neiman Journalism Lab, Similar Blogs Have a lot to Teach News Consumers
Visiting blogs like the Neiman Journalism Lab is a particularly good way for news consumers to become better informed and prepared to participate in the new, interactive world of online media. Journalism Lab is an outstanding resource, which describes itself as a "collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the internet age."
It's a group blog, directed by Joshua Benton who is a former Neiman Fellow at Harvard. He and his assistant editor, Zachary M. Seward, (formerly of the Wall Street Journal), do much of the writing, supplemented by many contributions from other journalists and bloggers. Journalism Lab seeks to:
- Highlight innovation and figure out what makes it succeed or fail
- Help reporters and editors adjust to their online labors
- Help traditional news organizations find ways to survive
- Help the startups, which will either complement , or supplant, traditional news
Tongue-in-cheek, they explain it this way: "We want to find good ideas for others to steal."
The Recovering Journalist Shares Technology Wisdom
Mark Potts' blog, Recovering Journalist, may be difficult for those who still love newspapers to read, as Potts has a lot of harsh words, and rarely a good one to say about them. But his insights about the business are well-stated, and his explanations of how developing technologies can be better used are excellent.
Potts was a print reporter and editor before switching to the digital world in the early 1990's. He says: "Rather than wallow in the past, I'd rather think about fresh new ways for the audience to receive, create and interact with news, information and advertising - and find new business models to pay for it."
Steve Outing and John Temple See Possibilities for a Better Future
Steve Outing has been called "a thought leader in the online media industry". He has spent the last 14 years assisting and advising media companies on their internet strategies. He has written a column, "Stop the Presses!" at Editor and Publisher Online since 1995. In 2000 he was awarded an Eppy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in service to the media industry.
Steve often writes about alternatives to paid content as a strategy for news publishers to make money on the internet.
At the blog Temple Talk, the former president of the Rocky Mountain News, John Temple, is passionately sharing lessons learned, and strategies which, in an ideal situation, he would have implemented to save his own paper. The conversation about newspapers needs to become bigger, he believes, adding, "In part, that's what I'm trying to do now: Make the conversation bigger."
Newspapers are prisoners of their own past, and must free themselves, Temple says. "The future is actually more exciting than anything in the past, if newspapers can find a way to participate in it."
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